Thanatyr
Member
2,605 words
“Are you alright?” Diana hurriedly worked the fasteners of her own coat. She slowed to walk just beside Fiora who was rushing down the sidewalk, the crying woman gave her an acknowledging nod but continued her walk. Behind them the opera house door creaked open and slammed from the wind as Lorenzo and Ennius burst into the street, Lorenzo jogged to try and reach his sister, who took a sudden turn down an alley to escape from the chill wind. Ennius followed at a slower pace, muttering under his breath.
Arriving at the dead end of the u-bend alley cluttered with trash cans, Fiora’s footing slipped. She put out her hand and stumbled into the wall, barely stopping from falling over. Hunched over she barely managed to keep her legs under her. Her thoughts were chaotic and swirling. Her breath laboured, clouding the air in front of her. Lorenzo shrugged uncertainly at Diana’s questioning look, turning back to his sister he crouched next to her and put his hand gently on her back.
“Hey, Fi, are you alright?” With his free hand he waved Diana off, even as she was about to speak. He continued, his words barely above a whisper. “I overheard at the opera, you were saying something about the incident at Elata. Are you sure it was the same?”
“You were there when it happened!” Fiora snapped back, springing upright and stomping in frustration.
“I was,” Lorenzo slouched his shoulders, his voice never raised, “but I wasn’t looking at the ship. You ran off and I was watching to make sure you were alright. Like I always do. Now, please tell me, what was it you saw? I just want to make sure you’re okay. Is it something we need to let the Conexus know about their investigation? Should we tell Amatus first?”
Her face contorted into a snarl upon hearing the name of their family lawyer. “He had to know. All of it. That thing on the ship, the whole accident. Was this whole opera tickets gift of his just a sick joke to mock me?”
“Let’s go ask him, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.” Lorenzo stood upright, straightened his tuxedo and smiled reassuringly.
“Um, guys?” Ennius called from where he was lingering at the entrance to the alley. The spurii was quickly retreating from six shadows that preceded the leather clad laicar who cast them as they appeared around the corner.
“You are dressed too fancy to have wandered all the way over here in this weather. With a mutt in tow, to boot! Were you taking your pet half breed for a walk?” The brawny laicar man at the lead scowled, turning his head to spit on the wall in disgust. From his belt came the gleam of metal off street lights as a long knife was loosed from its sheathe. He grinned threateningly as he stalked forward. One beam of light highlighted a tattoo on his neck, the star symbol of castus. “You know the drill, your money or your lives!”
“I don’t like these odds, we’re going to give them what they want.” Diana said calmly, hazel eyes calculating as she studying each of the thugs stalking menacingly down the narrow alley. She slowly slid her hand into a side pocket of her coat to avoid detection. “No one say anything stupid.”
“I didn’t bring any money with me, I left my wallet in the airship. It just made a weird lump in this jacket.” Lorenzo muttered, fear evident in his own voice. Even so he stepped in front of his sister protectively, a move that did not escape her notice.
“Hey now! At least Father had me practicing something more useful in a fight than target shooting, Mister Biathlon!” Fiora wiped her eyes angrily, removing any evidence of her earlier tears. Her knuckles clenched and adrenaline surged through her. Fiora’s mind raced as fast as her heart, jumping from memories of the falling airship engulfed in fire, and the defense drills her instructor had put her through many years ago.
“Hey! Shut up with the chit chat and give us your valuables!” The knife-wielding man shouted. One of his companions cocked his revolver, drawing a glare from their apparent leader. “Put that away, shit-for-brains! We don’t want gunshots bringing the Conexus down on our heads. In and out, a quick job.”
“Oh, you - you’re worried about the Conexus?” Ennius stammered, from where he was backed into a wall, face void of colour in terror.
“Shut up, you idiot!” Diana snapped at him. She nodded her head at the gang leader who was closing the gap with their feathered companion, “You want our money? You can take it and...”
“She - she’s with the Conexus! You wouldn’t want to have them after you and your friends here, would you?” Ennius finished his frantic thought, pointing wildly at Diana with the cane clenched in his trembling hand.
“Get over here you fool!” Diana yelled while springing into action, her order aimed at Ennius who was still propped against a wall half way between them and the approaching thugs. Her hand swung free of her pocket as she dove towards a pair of steel trash-cans, a metal tube thrown in an arc to Fiora. Pivoting as she grabbed one lid, Diana made a practiced tuck and roll that brought her back in front of the Sulmare siblings, her intensity causing most of the thugs to take a half step backwards.
“Boss, we only gotta get the spurii, you sure you want to mess with the Conexus chick?” A thug holding a steel pipe spoke up, warily eyeing the now defensive looking woman that stared them down.
Ennius’ eyes widened, feathers on his head pressing flat, panic giving him a sickly pallor. The spurii jolted out of his shocked state. He pushed off the wall, nearly tripping over his own feet in his retreat, blindly swinging at the thugs. The knife wielding mugger casually knocked the cane to the side and thrust his blade forward, catching Ennius just below his ribs. Rasping for the breath that was driven out of him, Ennius clutched at his abdomen even as the knife was drawn out, crimson stained steel glimmering in the dim light. His legs buckled and he crumpled into the muddied snow.
Lorenzo attempted to run forward to aid his friend, but stopped in his tracks from a cautioning look from Diana. Still caught up in the emotional riptide left by the memories that assaulted her, Fiora barely noticed when Ennius fell. Only the coppery taint in the air and the expanding dark pool beneath him snapped her part way to reality. It dawned on her in that moment she should feel something, anything, yet her reaction was to step up to Diana’s right and ready herself. The faster they could subdue the muggers, if that is who they were, the faster they could tend to Ennius.
“You make a good point,” the gang leader remarked, idly palming his knife. Dismissing Diana’s make shift shield he gave a resigned sigh, “kill them all. We leave no witnesses, Viskar have mercy on their souls.”
The mugger with the pistol drew a small switchblade with his free hand, and advanced with a thug carrying a metal wrapped club. Trailing a few steps behind, two more followed suit, one wielding a length of chain, and the last looked to be unarmed until Diana spotted the sheen of a metal plate riveted into his gloves. One mountain of a man, an oversized sword propped on his shoulder, paced near the alley entrance, watching over the street for witnesses.
Switchblade charged at Fiora, knife at the ready and the revolver still in his offhand. She flicked her wrist, extending the tube into a formidable weapon. Delighted for a brief moment by the fact that even off duty, the conexus officer carried around a collapsible baton. Deftly, she parried the knife and then struck down to slap at the gun which he endeavoured to aim at her.
Metal clattered as the gun fell to the flagstone, and the thug nearly recovered his bearing from her initial defensive strike, yet Lorenzo’s sidelong tackle toppled the mugger and they both hit the ground with Lorenzo on top, driving the air from her attackers lungs. Her brother’s face twisted with determined and protective rage, he shouted as his fists rained down on the man, “keep your damn hands off my sister!”
A short ways away, Diana was dealing with her own trouble. The club glanced off of her improvised shield with a loud clang, sending pain radiating up her arm. Grunting in an effort to ignore the pain she tilted the shield edge towards her opponent and swung hard. A loud crack and a sharp yell resounded as the impact broke his ribs. With the thug now distracted, Diana was able to use her free arm to release the hairpin keeping her hair up, and stabbed it into the club wielder’s forearm, snatching the club as it dropped from his limp grasp. The two thugs not yet engaged darted to flank, lashing with attacks that force Diana into a pivot, head tucked in as she took the impacts with her back, where her coat was thickest.
“Get in there and help, moron!” The lead mugger motioned in at his comrade with the sword.
Greatsword scoffed from the entrance, regarding his fallen fellows with disdain, “If I go in now, I’ll hurt those idiots. They always get in my way!”
“Then single out the cross-dressing bitch,” the man with the knife commanded, gesturing at Fiora with his blood soaked blade. With the spurii’s companions adequately preoccupied, he crouched next to Ennius and calmly talked over the clamouring. “Your grandfather has a message. Said you knew this was coming. Really, it is dirty work, cleaning up the bloodlines to keep the laicar pure.”
“My what?” Ennius sputtered, blood flecking his lips as he spoke. “What are you talking about, all of my grandparents are dead!”
“Well then, no one to miss a twisted mutant like you.” The gang leader stood to assess the alley, leaving Ennius to his fate. His eyes narrowed upon seeing Fiora stoop to pick up the stray pistol. He pointed and commanded roughly at the swordsman who was being far too slow for his liking. “Get her, now you idiot! Before she uses that thing and alerts the guard!”
Fiora, now seeing someone easily twice her size charging, changed tactics and drew on her arcane studies. Her right hand dropped the baton, drawing a half circle bisected by another diagonal line with a third dash between them. She exhaled quickly, her breath clouded more so with the spell, a thick fog rolling through the alley and surrounding her. She dodged to the left, hoping the swordsman would miss entirely.
“Bellator’s flaming ass, a little warning when you do that, next time!” Diana cursed as the fog swallowed her up, yet she utilized the sudden cover to swing her borrowed club in a wide arc at her assailant’s knees. Metal wrapped wood split flesh and shattered bone in a cacophony of pain.
The swordsman barrelled into the fog, sword cleaving up through the space she should have been, his blind trajectory caused him to trip right over Fiora instead. Down they crashed, a tangle of limbs and steel. The swordsman regained his footing first, his sword still grasped firmly, he lunged to pin her down. Smiling sadistically he trailed his blade up the side of Fiora’s right leg in a bloody path and drew it upwards, preparing to plunge the cold steel point down into her heart.
“Hold on, Fiora!” Lorenzo swung his fists blindly, stumbling through the fog where he thought his sister was in peril. He missed, but the act was enough to draw the swordsman’s attention away. Fiora used the opportunity to aim the pistol at his chest.
“Get off me, or I’ll shoot!” She lied, voice wavering uncertainly. Her hand trembled, the barrel weaving erratically but still centered on her assailant.
The thug smiled cruelly, his right hand grabbing the pistol, trying to wrench the firearm away from her. She pulled back, fighting frantically.
A loud crack resonated across the alley, and time seemed to still. For Fiora, she was suddenly very aware of nothing but the time between her heartbeats. She released a shuddered breath and everything rushed back in. The swordsman let go of the smoking metal barrel, clutching dumbfoundedly at a red stain that rapidly spread across his chest. The whites of his eyes blindingly bright with pain and shock, and he teetered for a moment before pitching forward and collapsing on top of her, his sword falling from his slack hand to clatter on the stone beside her. With one final gurgling sigh, he stilled.
“Get off!” Fiora screamed, horror and adrenaline coursing through her veins. She pushed against the muscled man, futilely straining to free herself from under his body. “Get off of me!” It was not until she felt the warmth of his blood seep through her clothes that she truly began to struggle.
She twisted and thrashed, aggravating the gaping wound on her leg, sending ripples of white hot pain up her body. Combined with the evening’s earlier anxiety, adrenaline, and the horror of what she had done, her body rebelled, purging her stomach of its contents. She choked on vomit until she was able to turn her head to the side. Coughing, she continued to scrabble until she could drag herself free. She could not tear her eyes away from the sight of the dead man before her, until her vision swam and blurred, hot tears making tracks through the blood splattered on her face. Shaking violently she crawled back, sobs wrenched from her.
The fog began to clear slowly, revealing where Diana stood menacingly over three of the thugs who clutched at shattered knees. Lorenzo ran over to his sister upon seeing her, his coat already off and moving to tend her bloodied leg. Down the empty alley, the knife wielding man had evidently run as he was gone from sight.
Tears clouded Fiora’s vision, so she hardly noticed when Diana handed Lorenzo the club and knelt down next to her leg. Words of a prayer were dulled and fuzzy, lost in her sobs. Pain lessened in her leg to a steady throb, but Fiora simply did not care. Overstimulated by all that had happened, Fiora shut down. Her sobs quieted and she retreated in on herself, arms wrapped as tightly around herself as she could make them. There was soft murmuring of voices and then her brother was sitting beside her, arm wrapped around her back, rubbing her shoulder soothingly. Gratefully, she leaned into the warmth of his embrace, succumbing to blissful darkness.
At the end of the alley, several figures in blue tabards arrived. The conexus, finally. Diana stood and slowly removed her bronze badge from a pocket, raising the shield to show who she was to the approaching guardsmen, her free hand gestured to the scene as she explained what had taken place.